Impact of anaerobic soil disinfestation on seasonal N2O emissions and N leaching in greenhouse vegetable production system depends on amount and quality of organic matter additions

Greenhouse vegetable production (GVP) systems in China receive excessive amounts of fertilizers (> 1500 kg N ha(-1) yr(-1)) and irrigation (> 1200 mm yr(-1)), which results in severe soil degradation. Moreover, soil borne diseases are common as the same crop is planted continuously over years. Anaerobic soil disinfestation (ASD) is a method carried out every 3-4 years during the summer fallow period to combat soil-borne diseases and to improve soil health. The standard ASD practice, which is carried out before the cropping season, involves incorporation of organic matter (i.e. rice shells or straw) into the soil, covering of the soil with plastic films and soil irrigation until saturation. However, many farmers incorporate large amounts of organic nitrogen fertilizer for priming ASD. In this study, we investigated if incorporation of rice shells plus chicken manure (ASD+RM; farmers practice) provokes higher environmental N losses (N2O emissions and N leaching) during the ASD and the following tomato crop growing period as compared to the standard ASD practice (ASD+R: only rice shells) or a Control (fallow, but with incorporation of organic manure, standard in non-ASD years). Results showed that ASD+RM increased seasonal (ASD/fallow period plus tomato crop growing period) soil N2O emissions by a factor of 3 (ASD+RM: 14.1 kg N2O-N ha(-1); ASD+R: 4.7 kg N2O-N ha(-1)), with 2/ 3 of emissions occurring during the 25 days long ASD period. Across all treatments, nitrate (NO3-) leaching dominated total N leaching (75%), with significantly lower rates observed for ASD+R as compared to ASD+RM. For both ASD treatments, total dissolved organic nitrogen (DON) leaching was a factor of two higher than for the Control. Crop productivity was not affected by ASD. Our findings imply that ASD+RM should be abandoned as the additional supply of manure N results in high environmental N losses without further increasing yields.

Automated summary

Greenhouse vegetable production systems in China suffer from excessive fertilizers and irrigation, leading to soil degradation and disease spread. Incorporating large amounts of organic nitrogen fertilizer during anaerobic soil disinfestation increases environmental nitrogen losses without improving crop productivity.